Radio transceivers are typically designed to support one, or small number of, fixed radio access technologies (RAT). For example, a radio transceiver may support WiFi technology, or specific UTRAN access network technologies such as a 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3G or Long Term Evolution (LTE) RAT.
Reconfigurable radio transceivers have been proposed that provide a radio hardware platform that is reconfigurable in such a way that essential radio characteristics (carrier frequencies, spectrum bandwidth, modulation technique, coding technique, output power levels, etc.) may be changed to allow the radio transceiver to be reconfigured to support different RATs.
It is important that reconfigurable radio transceivers are able to meet the same performance requirements as current transceivers that support a few fixed predefined RATs, in order that they are able to meet the certification requirements laid down by national regulators in each country. In particular, any reconfigurations must also meet the certification requirements before being deployed onto devices used on national networks.
However, recertification of reconfigurable radio transceivers is typically expensive and time consuming.